This disclosure is directed to systems and methods of digital scaling and correction of a plurality of color channels in a multicolor image forming device.
Printers, copiers, and other types of image forming devices have become necessary productivity tools for producing and/or reproducing documents. Such image forming devices include, but are not limited to, desktop copiers, stand alone copiers, facsimile machines, photographic copiers, laser printers and copiers, and multifunction devices which may comprise one or more of the above devices and other like systems capable of producing, and/or reproducing image data from an original document, data file or the like. During the image reproduction process, it is known in systems such as the ones listed above, to divide a color image into a plurality of images to simplify processing. These plurality of images, when recombined, may reproduce the original image. As is known, an image may be divided into a plurality of images, in accordance with a multicolor color space. Such a color space may define a plurality of colors, that when combined in varying amounts, are able to produce a wider variety and number of colors than the number of the colors in the color space. In this way, a relatively small number of component images, or color channels, where each color channel represents a color image drawn with preferably, but not limited to, one color channel representing one of the plurality of colors defined by a color space, may be provided to reproduce a relatively large number of colors.
For example, as in known in paper color image reproduction, a color space defined by four component colors, comprising cyan, magenta, yellow and black may be used n order to reproduce full color images. This color space may be referred to as CMYK, and may provide full color reproduction of images. Each full color image may, in turn, be divided into four colors channels, as discussed above, where each color channel may be associated with one of the four colors channels C, M, Y, and K comprising the CMYK color space.
Because a full color image may be separated into color channels, errors may occur during the reproduction process. Specifically, alignment of all of the color channels must be maintained in order to properly reproduce the image. If color channels are not aligned, a final reproduced color image may appear to have incorrect colors when superimposed, or may cause the “ghosting” of images, where one or more color channels are visibly displaced from other color channels.